Quotes - Defeat

Although defeat itself
was the expected conclusion, it was certainly a shock. So during
the next few years, I really tried hard to adapt to civilian
life, but I didn't fit in very well.

But a thought struck me one day. What
am I worrying about? If Japan had won the war, I would 've stayed
a serviceman all my life. But we lost and I could no longer stay
in the Navy. That's why I'm starting from day one as a civilian.
The defeat, then, is letting me do what my son would be doing.
I'm living two generations in one. This is great! I have to thank
my parents to have born me in this age.! Ever since I had reached
such enlightment, my future seemed bright and I had new hopes.

Saburo Sakai

We started hearing about the defeat
at Midway from the carrier pilots. The more I heard their stories,
the angrier I was. Not towards the enemy, but towards Vice Admiral
Nagumo and his staff who took command. Their panic stricken and
errornous decisions after finding the US carriers, failure to
recover from damages, and most of all, to the fact that they
got on board a destroyer and left the Akagi while the crew were
desparately fighting the raging fire.

Their rationale for leaving the ship
was that if they were killed, there would be nobody to take command
of the fleet. However, a dive bomber pilot spoke for all of us
in heavy downtown Tokyo accent, "What command? All we could
do then was pack up and go home. Anyone can do that!".

One of us floatplane pilots remarked
"Gee, I'm starting to feel down, being lead into battle
by guys like that.", and the dive bomber crew snapped back.
"We've been sick and tired of them for a long time".